Men Pro/1/2

1 JENSEN, Brian — Tradewind Energy Cycling Team
2 TILFORD, Stephen — Tradewind Energy/Trek
3 WADDELL, Jason — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS
4 BELL, Rob — Team Undiscovered
5 ANKNEY, Mat — PARK PLACE DEALERSHIPS

3/7 Salt Creek Criterium

This race is run as a criterium even though the circuit is 2.6 miles long.  The race course is at Lake Keystone west of Tulsa and features a few small hills but is exposed to the wind off of the Lake.  The wind was whipping again today and created multiple sections of gutter racing.  Park Place was extremely aggressive from the start with all members taking turns attacking and covering attacks but the field was not willing to let many groups get away.  We finally got Chad off the front in a small group only to come around a corner and see a crash in the middle of the road with Chad ending up in the ditch.  More bad luck had struck.  Over the next few laps Mat, Justin and Jason patrolled the front to make sure we were represented in any breaks while Chad made his way to the wheel pit.

Once Chad was back in the field he found himself off the front in a two-man break after about 30 minutes of racing and his gap grew to over 1 minute.  Many attacks went nowhere in bringing back the gap but with only 15 minutes remaining Chad flatted in break and the bad luck curse continued.  The gap went from over 1 minute to 10 seconds and a whole new race developed.  Jason followed a hard counter-attack by Saturday’s winner Brian Jensen and found himself off the front with a sizable gap.  Brad Huff of Jelly Belly and superman of the day Chad made it across to this two-man group and immediately Chad attacked gaining a small gap with 1 lap to go.  Jensen went after Chad with Jason following.  This 3 man group stayed away to the finish with Chad attacking with over 1k to go to get a solo win and the first of the year for the Park Place Dealerships Elite Team.  Jason finished in 3rd with Mat winning the field sprint for 6th.

All bad luck considered it was a successful weekend for the Oklahoma contingent of the team and we look forward to carrying this momentum and the breaking of the bad luck down with us to Texas at the next race.

3/6  Cowskin Road Race

This road race is held on a 5.2 mile course that is located 25 miles west of Tulsa.  The course has a demanding ¾ mile long hill and with the Pro 1/2 race doing 12 laps at 63 miles is a very demanding loop.  The weather on Saturday was extremely windy and with a field of only 40 riders it was going to be a race that wasn’t conducive to hiding out.  Park Place Dealerships Oklahoma contingent of the Elite Team was composed of Mat Ankney, Chad Cagle, Justin Rempel and Jason Waddell.

The race was extremely active from the beginning and after 5 laps the race winning move had been established.  Park Place put Mat, Chad, and Jason in a 6 man move containing Steve Tilford, Brian Jensen, and Rob Bell.  We liked our odds and over the next lap worked hard to distance the field.  Less than one lap later and with 5 laps remaining Mat and Chad got tangled up taking both out of the break leaving Jason to deal with teammates Tilford and Jensen.  They made quick work of Jason and he and Rob Bell rode together to the finish with Jason securing third place.  Mat soloed the remaining race finishing fifth after his mid-race mishap.

This was the third weekend in a row that the Park Place Elite team has had bad luck.  Ever since our crash at Walburg we have dealt with sickness, flats, crashes even though we have ridden excellent as a team.  The pieces have all been on the board but have yet to fall into place.  On Sunday we were determined to reverse our bad luck.